Syrian Refugee Released After 1 Year in Airport

Click here to read the article in Turkish / Haberin Türkçesi için buraya tıklayın. 

Syrian refugee Fadi Mansour has left the Atatürk Airport where he had been kept for one year for the first time today. It is expected that the decision would be taken today regarding where he would be sent next.

CLICK - SYRIAN REFUGEE KEPT IN AIRPORT OVER 1 YEAR WITHOUT DAYLIGHT, FRESH AIR, BED

His lawyer Aysu Kapaklıkaya talking to bianet has noted that the Ministry of Interior Directorate General of Migration Management had taken action following the news appearing on the media.

Application for release

Kapaklıkaya has noted that a decision for taking Mansour out of the airport and delivering him to the Adana Repatriation Center had been issued:

“Mansour following the decision has been taken out of the Room for Problematic Passengers and been kept under administrative watch on a police control point.  Today (March 21) the procedures for him leaving the airport have been completed.

“It has been reported that the decision would be put in effect today and he would be sent to Kumkapı Repatriation Center ahead of Adana.

“Yet we have objected to that decision. We have made an application to let him stay in İstanbul, be released of being sent to Kumkapı Repatriation Center. We hope to get a response for the application before the end of the day.

“Let’s share lunch”

Mansour had shared the picture of the hamburger he used to eat to every lunch for a year on Twitter.

Citizen of Syria, F.M. has left Syria to evade military service in August 2012 and went to Lebanon.

F.M. stated that he came to Turkey from Lebanon following being kept hostage for ransom by a local group in Lebanon.

He went to Malaysia after staying in Turkey for a month. His entrance to Malaysia was denied on the allegation that he used fake ID information. Malaysian authorities returned him to Turkey in March 2015.

F.M. has been remanded in custody in Atatürk Airport’s “Problematic Passengers Room” for eight months. He demanded to be sent to Lebanon after he was attacked and wounded by another person on remand.

He headed to Lebanon on November 20 but his entrance to the country was denied and that sent back to İstanbul the next day, on November 21. He had been taken into custody once more as he landed in İstanbul and was being kept in “Problematic Passengers Room”. (AS/DG)